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In attendance: Romy Thiele, Victoria Clinton, Dan Kaplan, Yaping Li,
John Kirk, Ernie Rodriguez, Katharine Harer, Joaquin J. Rivera, Chip
Chandler, Eric Brenner
The meeting was called to order on February 25, 2004 at 2:26 at
Skyline College.
NON AGENDA ITEMS
Dan - Barbara Christianson called in regards to the proposed faculty housing. If anyone is interested in being an AFT representative, please let us know. It will not be a long commitment, maybe one meeting. Eric Brenner suggests that the representative should be a person who wants one of the units.
A message from Skyline faculty member Masao Suzuki was relayed to the EC which proposes that AFT Local 1493 join with the NEA to call for the resignation of Rod Paige, Bush's Secretary of Education, for his anti-teachers union diatribe equating teachers with terrorists.
MINUTES
Minutes were approved with proposed corrections.
********************************************
PRESIDENTS REPORT
The forums went well. At one of the forums, one faculty member brought up the issues of early tenure and PT seniority over FT for class overload. Language will be adjusted in negotiated contract to address the issue of PTers and FT overload.
Discussion on the presidents' report:
Post retirement contract is now by college. Someone wants the contract district-wide. Does the contract language preclude this?
Attendance numbers for class maximums is calculated at census. If a faculty member goes over the limit on their own volition, then it is their business. The contract is to prevent students being added by people other than instructors.
There was a discussion about problems with registration and lack of wait lists. One EC member brought up the concern that it is hard for students to get classes.
Katharine - What kind of feedback about negotiations are we getting in our own departments?
One EC member reported that one faculty member wondered whether we were going to prioritize negotiation items. This faculty member felt that the 8% salary increase was too much and that we should just concentrate on medical benefits.
Eric - We need to develop a rationale for our proposals.
There was a discussion about publishing a "blue sheet" to all faculty, explaining how negotiations work. The sheet should be distributed after the March 2 primary election but before the board meets on the issues of the contract so that the info sheet will seem positive and proactive, rather than a reaction to board decisions.
Discussion on the March 15 march on Sacramento - On March 10 there is going to be a teach-in at Skyline. Last year, certain deans gave faculty a hard time for going to the March. Joaquin is meeting with Ron Galatolo to form an agreement for the treatment of teachers who do go on the March.
CSM Associated Students (AS) already put out a communication to students that there will be buses going to Sacramento and the outing will include free lunches and t-shirts. Skyline already has flyers. Postcards and recruiting worked last year. This year the effort is less organized.
****************************************************
REPORT ON BUDGET COMMITTEE
John Kirk Reporting on the District Committee on Budget and Finance: We got the midyear budget with information on what we spent and what is left. It doesn't look that bad for us. We are one of only a few districts in the state that is self-supporting. But we get ERAF money. If Proposition 57 doesn't pass, then we will be in big trouble. We were going to go into Basic Aid next year, but when the governor proposed to fold in funds, it delayed our movement into Basic Aid status.
The District Office's share of revenue is 14% but recent budget indicates the figure as 16.6%. This figure is close to Canada's share of revenue. Why was the Central Services budget put up by 4 million? The answer is that the 4 million is "parked money" to be used elsewhere. So, does this "parked money" include money for a salary increase? The District knows that they will end up with surplus next year. The " best case scenario" is that we need to get enrollment up so they can hire more Part-time faculty and not cut classes.
We do have extra enrollment from last year so we can manipulate numbers and show the enrollment HAS NOT fallen.
According to Keller's report at the district budget meeting, there was a question whether the money above 4% is reserved. It was suggested someone write an article for the Advocate. It is important that we know there is some money for a COLA.
BUDGET DISCUSSION
Local 1493 in its projected budget revision is $50,000 in debt. Leaders of the local are very cognizant of what is happening. The main problem is not just lay offs of Part Timers which results in less dues collected. The biggest problem is that we are not getting enough union dues because we have capped the full-time salaries at $50,000. Faculty is currently paying 1% of salary in dues plus the pass through. If we abolished the cap, AFT would be $62,000 richer.
Discussion: Maybe abolish the cap gradually. This needs to be voted on by the AFT members. We need to have an education campaign and explain where the money goes, affiliation fees, the extent of our budget crisis. CFT has offered to help us produce a brochure on the subject, but we shouldn't make it too "slick."
Eric - What decision do we want to make? A gradual elimination of the cap is best, but we need a plan. It needs to be a proposal that is tied to a salary increase. Maybe we should wait until after negotiations. Or should we tie it to the AFT 1493 elections in May, when only AFT members vote?
One EC member brought up whether we are paying too much on legal fees.
Dan K. says we spent some of our projected budget on legal costs, but we get 2/3 of that back from CFT and AFT.
We should present to faculty that prices have gone up and so Local expenses have gone up. Dan can gather material for the brochure and put articles in the Advocate. It should be made clear is that we are paying less in dues and agency fees than other districts.
OTHER NEWS
USLAW affiliation resolution: We need to re-affiliate because USLAW has restructured their organization. They are also operating on a shoestring. We can give a token amount. The discussion on this was moved to next meeting.
********************************************
GRIEVANCE REPORT
The Arbitrator ruled against the AFT in the dismissal case. In the decision, the instructor was dismissed but retained his medical benefits. He will not appeal.
A part-time teacher received poor evaluations, but the dean did not follow procedures. The teacher was offered the teaching job for the rest of the semester on the condition she not continue the job next year.
Part-Timer seniority for discontinued program - Case not resolved.
Class size at Canada - Still no response. They did rescind the decision to increase class sizes.
Meeting is adjourned at 4:20
Respectfully submitted,
Kathleen Feinblum